Live Playoffs: Night 1, Season 12 of “The Voice”

Monday marked the first live show of Season 12. Blake Shelton and Alicia Keys’ artists performed for voters, while Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani’s teams will be performing Tuesday night. All four coaches also choose one comeback artist who they feel is deserving of another opportunity.

However, the coaches are out of the driver’s seat, as voters now decide the contestants’ fate. To catch the full results on performance highlights and results on the live playoffs, read on (best performances marked with a “*”).

Team Shelton’s Artists

Live Performance #1: Casi Joy singing “Parachute” by Chris Stapleton

Pros

Cons

Ranking (out of 10)

Took full command of the stage and moved like a true professional with her energy.

She added a bit more of a pop element into the piece, and really allowed the drums to carry her through the song.

Her diction was extremely messy. It was difficult to understand her most of the time.

Her arrangement combined several electric guitars that played various chords all around each other to create a unique and dazzling atmosphere for her upper register.

Her vibrato was shaky on some of her transitions around the stage, affecting her diction.

6.5/10

Live Performance #12: Stephanie Rice singing “Every Breath You Take” by The Police

Pros

Cons

Ranking (out of 10)

The trickling of the piano keys and the background violins created a peaceful atmosphere for her falsetto and lower range.

Her growls were stuffed with powerful emotions, and her belt was pitch perfect.

The arrangement of the music had a completely uneven sense of transition between a peaceful volume to energetic background noise.

Rice’s breath management lost some control

6.5/10

So Who Moved On?

The top two artists who received the most votes from Team Keys and Team Shelton advanced into the top 12, while the fate of the remaining four artists were left in the hands of their coaches. The coaches could only preserve one of their four, and had to make the tough decision of who to push forward and who to send home.

Sam Bodnar is a sophomore at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He is a Journalism Major and will be working with the Indiana Daily Student in the fall of 2018. He is one of the youngest staff writers for MEB and the former Editor-in-chief for his high school publication, "The Sage."
He looks forward to many more unique experiences with MEB and the journalism world.